Machine for forming gear guards



Aug. 4, 1931. w. H. WAKEFIELD 1,317,115

MACHINE FOR FORMING GEAR GUARDS Filed Jan. 14, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l IN VE/V TOR WA L. TE R H WA hEF/EL 0 JKWQ YM A 77'DRNEY5 Aug. 4, 1931. w. H. WAKEFIELD MACHINE FOR FORMING GEAR GUARDS Filed Jan. 14, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. j

/7\/ \/EN 7-09 WAL TEF? H. WAKEF/EL 0 77" ORNE Y5 Patented Aug. 4, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WALTER H. WAKEFIELD, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO CROMPTON & KNOWLES LOOM WORKS, 015 WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS MACHINE FOR- FOR-MING GEAR GUARDS Application filed January 14, 1930.

This invention relates to improvements in machines for forming sheet metal, particularly gear guards, and it is the general object of the invention to provide a machine capable of forming gear guards and the like from sheet metal so as to give them a variety of forms.

In my co-pending application Ser. No. 107,838 I have described a gear guard formed of sheet metal wherein one side of a piece of angle material is corrugated or otherwise deformed so as to cause curvature in the other side of the material. This is conveniently accomplished by providing a strip of material having two portions bent at right angles to each other and providing one of said portions with tapered corrugations so that one edge of the strip is materially shortened while the center line of fold retains its original length. In this way curvature of theother portion is produced and this curvature can be varied by the amount of taper of the corrugations. It is an important object of my invention to provide a pattern or control member to vary the angular relation of a pair of corrugating rolls so as to produce a variety of radii of curvature as Well as uncurved parts.

With these and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, my invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and set forth in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein a convenient embodimentof my invention is set forth,

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the operating parts of a machine made according to my present invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on line 22 of F ig. 1

'Fig. 3 is an end elevation taken in the direction of arrow 3, Fig. 1;

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a gear guard such as can be made by the particular form of controller cam shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view of the guard showing the straight and variously curved portions; and

Fig. 6 is a plan of a pattern or control mem- Serial No. 420,785.

her capable of producing a curve of constant radius.

The machine has a base plate 10 provided with an upright standard 11 which supports a lower corrugating roller 12 formed with corrugating teeth 13. The roller may be formed as a part of shaft 14L which extends through the standard and has keyed to the right-hand thereof, as viewed in Fig. 1, a small driven gear 15. The latter meshes with a motor gear 16 shown in Fig. 3 driven by a motor M secured to the base plate 10.

The upright 11 has a narrower upper portion 17 from which extends a horizontal brace 18. In said portion 17 I secure a stud 19 on c which is mounted a relatively large gear 20 meshing with gear and keyed to a pinion 21. The gear and pinion and 21, respectively, rotate around the stud 19.

A relatively large controller gear 22 meshes keys 26. The cam shown in Fig. 2 has an internal surface which has an area 27 of relatively large radius, another area 28 of smaller radius and a third area 29 of still smaller radius. As shown herein the cam surfaces 28 and 29 are connected by an area 30 which may be of the same radius as the first described area 27.

As seen in Figs. 1 and 3 the brace 18 has mounted thereon a yoke 31 held in position by a screw 32 and provided with a pair of spaced hooked-shaped bearings 33. A bearing member 34 has a central portion 35 of relatively large diameter to be received by the downwardly facing concave surface 36 formed on the brace 18. Said portion 35 is provided with a bore 37 through which extends the outer end 38 of a shaft 39. The

central portion may be slabbed as at to engage a flange 41 preferably formed integral with the shaft 39.

Freelyrotatable on the shaft39 is a second corrugated roller 42 having teeth 43 corresponding to the teeth 13 of the first described roller. The second roller is limited as to movementto the left as viewed in Figs. 1 by the. shoulder 41 and likewise limited as to movement to the right by an adjustable collar 44 secured to the shaft 39. I

, The right-hand end of the shaft 39 as shown in Fig. 1 has rotatably mounted thereon acrowned roller 45 positioned for engagement with the internal cam surfaces heretofore described. A comparatively heavycompression spring 46 is interposed between the under side of -the shaft 39 and the'upright portion 11, being received by a poclret 47 formed in the latter. The purpose of said spring. is to hold the roller 45 against the controller cam. The reduced portionl'Z is provided with a vertical slot 48 which confines the spring 46 and also permits up and down motion .of the shaft 39.

The machine hereinrdescribed is formed for cooperation with a strip of sheet metal which has twov portions thereof 50 and 51, respectively, disposed at right angles to each other, the material being'so formed prior to presentation to the rollers.

In operation an angle strip of sheet material will have one end of the horizontal portion 51 thereof presented to the corrugating teeth 13 and 43, respectively Assuming that the gearing is such as to. cause the cam face to move inthe direction of arrow 52, Fig, 2 ,with the parts in the position shown int-he latter figure, the rollers 12 and 42 will have their axes substantially parallel during the time that the cam is moving from the point designated at'53 in Fig. 2 until it reaches point 54 near area 28. Duringthis rotation the rollerswill have sufficient contact with the'st'o'clr' or horizontal portion 51 willibe an appreciable. lessening of the dis tance between :the right-hand end of the teeth andas the machine continues to operate the portion 51 of the material being acted upon will be given tapering corrugations of a rather. shallow form. Continued rotation of V the control-cam will bringthe point 55 there of atthe end-of area 28 into engagement withthe roller 45 and the spring .46 will reestablish the parallel relation ofthe shafts 14 and 39.

During the time thereafter that the roll 45 is in engagement with the surface 30 of the control cam the portion 51 will be fed through without substantial deformation. As the roller reaches thepoint56 in the cam at the beginning of area 29 it will be given a downward motion greater than that which is received previously and will be held in this p0- sitionduring the. short time that-the roller:

is inengagement with the surface 29.. As the end of the said surface 29 arrives under the roller the latter will again move into engagement with the surface 27 to accomplish a simple feeding movement of the horizontal por tion 51 without forming corrugations.

In, Fig. 5 I have given a diagrammatic View of the portion 51 of the guard, wherein the portion A corresponds .to a part of the surface 27, the portion B of relatively large radius of curvature corresponds to surface 28, straight portion C corresponds to the surface 30, portion D corresponds to the surface 29. which produces a relatively small radius of curvature,-and straight portion E corresponds to the remainder of the surface 27.

It cam may be varied to produce different contours, and it is notnecessary that the length of the portions A and E be strictly proportional to the length of the surface 27. By

selecting the time of feeding the material with respect to the location of the roller 45 along the surface. 27 the operator of the machine-can varythe lengths of the portions Aand E. v i

It will be understood that if it is desired to produce aguard section ofbut one radius of curvature the cam w-illtalre theform of a simple ring with an internal surface YO as shown in Fig. 6 concentric with the shaft 14. The desired result is attained by maintainin i the rollers 12 and 42 inthe same angular relation throughout the guard forming op eration. It is'to be. understood that the two forms of guardset forth herein' are merely exemplary of a variety which can be produced by my present invent-ion and that the only part which needs replacing is the controller cam.v

While 1 have shown the invention as operating on an angle section, yet 1 am not limited to this form as aplane stripof material can be given various curves to alter its contour.

' From the foregoingitjwill be seenthat I have provided a simple form of mechanism for deforming one side of a strip of sheet stock more than the other side so as to produce straight and variably curvedportions. It will further be seen that the same machine may beemployed to produce various shapes of guards merely by changing-the controller cam. It will also be seen that-when straight gear, sections are desired the rollers 12 and 42 may be so related as to effect a simple isto be understood that the form of the J feeding of the material without forming corrugations.

Having thus described my invention it will be seen that changes and modifications may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and I do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, but what I claim is:

1. I11 a machine for corrugating sheet material, a pair of corrugating rollers movable one with respect to the other and capable of havin their axes substantially parallel, a pattern surface, and means operatively interposed between one of said rollers and the pattern surface to effect a change in the angular relation between the axes of the corrugating rollers to vary the character of corrugation produced by said rollers in the material.

2. In a machine for corrugating sheet ma terial, a pair of corrugating rollers capable of assuming a plurality of angular positions with respect to each other, a pattern surface, means acted upon by the pattern surface to vary the angular relation between the corrugating rollers, and means to cause the pattern surface and rollers to move in timed relation.

3. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a pair of corrugation forming rollers to co-act in producing a corrugation in sheet material, said rollers being capable of assuming a plurality of angular positions with respect to each other, a movable controller surface, geared connections between the controller surface and the rollers to cause said surface and rollers to move in timed relation, and. means under control of the controller and movable thereby as the controller surface moves to vary the angular relation between the corrugation forming rollers to produce corrugations of different characters to be formed in the sheet material.

4. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a'pair of corrugating rollers capable of having their axes parallel and also disposed at angles with respect to each other, a pattern surface movable in timed relation with the rollers, and connections between the surface and the rollers controlled by the surface and effective to cause the axes of said rollers to assume a parallel relation, or any angular relation within a limited range depending upon the pattern surface, to cause corrugations of differing characters to be formed in the sheet material.

5. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a corrugatin g roll movable about a stationary axis, a second corrugating roll to cooperate with the first roll and movable about an axis which may assume any one of a plurality of angular positions with respect to the axis of the first roll, a pattern surface, and means operatively connecting the surface with the movable roller to effect differing angular relationships between the axes to effect changes in the character of corrugations produced in the material.

6. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a pair of corrugating rollers capable of co-acting and operating upon a strip of sheet material to form corrugations theiein, and a pattern surface movable in timed relation with the rollers and operatively connect ed thereto to vary the character of corrugations formed in the sheet material.

7. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a pair of corrugation forming rollers capable of co-acting with a sheet of material to feed the same between the rollers and also form therein corrugations tapering in differing degrees, and a pattern surface movable in imed relation with the rollers to cause the latter to produce corrugations of varying degrees of taper in the sheet material.

8. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a pair of feeding corrugation forming rollers to act upon a strip of sheet material to form corrugations therein and also advance said strip between the rollers, and means to vary the degree of taper formed in the strip of sheet material by the rollers, said 'means acting in timed relation with the feeding of the strip of sheet material.

9. In a machine for corrugating sheet material, a pair of corrugating rollers to form tapered corrugations in the sheet material, a member moving in timed relation with the rollers, and a removable pattern surface normally fixed to the member and moving therewith and operatively connected to the rollers to vary the degree of taper caused by said rollers in the sheet material.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature.

IVALTER II. WAKEFIELD. 

